1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a windscreen wiper device.
2. Related Art
The present invention relates to a windscreen wiper device comprising an elastic, elongated carrier element, as well as an elongated wiper blade of a flexible material, which can be placed in abutment with a windscreen to be wiped, which wiper blade includes opposing longitudinal grooves on its longitudinal sides, in which grooves spaced-apart longitudinal strips of the carrier element are disposed, wherein neighbouring ends of said longitudinal strips are interconnected by a respective connecting piece, which windscreen wiper device comprises a connecting device for an oscillating arm, wherein said oscillating arm is pivotally connected to said connecting device about a pivot axis near one end, with the interposition of a joint part, wherein said joint part comprises at least one resilient tongue engaging in a correspondingly shaped hole provided in said oscillating arm, and wherein said resilient tongue is rotatable along an hinge axis between an outward position retaining the wiper blade onto the oscillating arm and an inward position releasing the wiper blade from the oscillating arm.
Such a windscreen wiper device is known from European patent publication no. 1 403 156 of the same Applicant. This prior art windscreen wiper device is designed as a “yokeless” wiper device, wherein no use is made of several yokes pivotally connected to each other, but wherein the wiper blade is biassed by the carrier element, as a result of which it exhibits a specific curvature. In order to connect the wiper blade onto the oscillating arm, said resilient tongue is initially pushed in against a spring force—as if it were a push button—and then allowed to spring back into the hole provided in said oscillating arm, thus snapping, that is clipping the resilient tongue into the hole. By subsequently pushing in again said resilient tongue against the spring force, the wiper blade may be released from the oscillating arm.
In practice it has become apparent that, during use of the windscreen wiper device known from the above European patent publication, high forces are exerted on the connection between the connecting device and the oscillating arm. As a consequence thereof the resilient tongue may no longer be in a proper snapped position into the hole of the oscillating arm, resulting in play between the connecting device and the oscillating arm. Eventually, the wiper blade may get loose from the oscillating arm.